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Parroting Spiritual Pointers

Awareness. Consciousness. Silence. Stillness. Presence. Being. Isness. This. Aliveness. Existence. Spaciousness.

So many words and they are all useful. In fact it can sometimes be helpful to change them around a bit lest people get stuck on one conceptual word as if it literally is IT.

I’ve seen so many people (myself included here) who’ll go around saying “It’s all an illusion. None of this is real. You’re already it. Just wake up and realize we’re all one.” Great, cool. The thing is that as @oshum said, these words become like a dull sword, unable to cut through the darkness. You can keep saying these words ’till you’re blue in the face, but life will show you that this is a path of diminishing returns and eventually it runs dry on you.

These pointers may be true and useful to a certain point, but eventually you realize that simply saying these words and telling them to others doesn’t actually wake people up and end suffering. It may help crack the mind to a certain extent, but that’s about it. It won’t “do it for you.”

It’s Okay to Feel Good and Enjoy the World!

Suggestions and pointers can be very useful, but we may eventually outgrow them. Teachings are helpful up to a certain point, but we must eventually let them go or else they will become limitations. It’s almost like sitting in a big slingshot. The slingshot will sling you forward, but if you continue holding on for too long, what once propelled you forward will eventually hold you back.

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Movie Review: Avatar

Alright so first off, if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, you gotta go watch it!! Whether you choose to watch the movie in 2D or 3D, both offer an amazing experience.

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the movie takes place on a distant planet named Pandora that is home to these blue humanoid aliens called the Na’vi. They are very much like the Native Americans with bows and arrows and a deep appreciation and respect for life and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. The US military comes in to basically drive them out so they can mine for this mineral called unobtainium, killing off many of the natives in the process.

There are some beautiful spiritual messages in the movie and the way it’s all illustrated is absolutely amazing. Just… wow…

The forest and plantlife on the planet is phosphorescent and iridescent in a very heavenly way and even glows for a moment every time you step on the grass. The sky is full of gorgeous planets and moons. Standing on that planet and looking up into the heavens strangely feels like home…

Their diety is a benevolent goddess named Eywa who is basically the living energy that runs through all things. One particularly great passage from the movie took place when one of characters prays to Eywa to take their side and help during the invasion of the military. Another character responded that Eywa doesn’t take sides. She only helps preserve the balance of life.

Heck, even the credits of the movie were amazing. Make sure you stay past the end and watch them to see how many people were involved in the creation of this film. My jaw literally hung open watching them scroll by. It was so nice to see that many (thousands of) people join together in the name of creating such a conscious movie, helping reinforce the understanding that all this “oneness stuff” isn’t so alternative and out there, but is rapidly becoming integrated as a part of mainstream life.

So yeah, if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly highly recommend checking it out!

For those of you who have seen the movie, what was your experience? What did you like about it? How did the movie impact you?

Jim Carrey’s Awakening

It’s quite beautiful to see awakening being discussed by and experienced by big name celebrities now, bringing enlightenment off the mystical mountaintop and right here into our everyday lives.

The Beauty of That Which Can Not Be Named

Union by Mario Duguay

There’s an old saying that the only thing permanent is impermanence. Our life experience is one of learning better ways to interact with this changing flow.

And yet simultaneously there is this eternal unchanging presence. It seems to be part of neither existence nor nonexistence… It is a manifestation of nothing. It is unmanifest. It is. All that can really be said is that it is. We can go within and tap into this and find that when resting in this place, it’s as if we are home, and I mean really home. In this place there is no longing for anything more, no need to get anything, and truly no sense of lack. There is no separation for there is nothing else to be separate from. All else is just appearance, and yet the appearance is not other than this. In this pure being, all is divinely perfect just as it is, including the appearance of problems and pain, and yet it doesn’t invalidate the negative aspects of Allness. To simply be is itself already completely sufficient. Nothing more is needed.

In this space there is no anxious need for a particular outcome, as if one outcome would somehow lead to more fulfillment than another. It’s interesting… when we release our attachment to the outcome, we find this place of perfect peace that is what it is, independent of outcome. It is a space beyond the mind, transcendent and yet completely grounded, particularly when the lower chakras are open and balanced. It’s as if the physical body is being used as a vessel to bring the peace of heaven down to earth. This peace is expressed through a mind/body organism.

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Desirelessness vs. Releasing Resistance to Desire

So some teachers would suggest that you should get rid of all your desires altogether for that is the ideal state, to be happy with what is and to desire nothing more than what is here and now. Then you’ve got other teachers who would suggest that it’s not really about the desires themselves, but rather the attachment to (and therefore resistance to) the desires themselves. When we get into the discussion about desire, it can be helpful to get clear about our definition of the word desire.

Isha Judd has a hilarious video where she addresses the difference between renouncing the objects of your desire in the name of enlightenment versus letting go of the attachment to desires, as well as the difference between clingy attachment which many people confuse with love and what love actually is.

There’s also a passage I’d like to share with you that’s just past the 6 minute mark in the following Abraham-Hicks video. The passage has to do with the idea of “releasing desires.”

In the moment you stop pushing against [your monsters and fears], you catch a current that takes you to where you wanna go. That’s why some say “let go let God” or “relax.” “Release desire” is what many teach and we know that’s their way of tricking you into not having any more resistance because it is not possible for you to release desires. You are here FULL of desire, but sometimes by releasing desire, or feeling like you are, you release resistance and when you release resistance, your cork floats back to the surface or you catch the current of your stream, you see.”

-Abraham-Hicks

Allowing, surrender, non-resistance, being, going with the flow, saying yes to what is… call it what you will but it’s pretty fundamental stuff.

Quieting Your Mind vs. Using Your Mind

Have you ever heard of the term “monkey mind?” It’s basically when your mind is running amok and your thoughts are going crazy. When that happens, what to do? What to do?

Well there’s two schools of thought (no pun intended) that we can discuss:

1) Quiet your mind

2) Direct your mind deliberately towards better feeling thoughts

Both techniques are designed to help you release resistance, experience your true self, and express your natural radiance as you live your life from moment to moment.

That said, there are some key differences such as the nature of free will, as we will explore some of these differences below:

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The Phenomena and Experiences are Fun, but Not All That Big a Deal In the End

This is a sort of universal disclaimer I usually like to mention after bringing up some of the more *flashy* aspects of the spiritual arena including the fracturing of time, crazy spiritual experiences, the ability to manifest powerfully, connecting with beings in other dimensions, out of body experiences, and so on…

All that stuff can be and often is lots of fun, very entertaining, and garner lots of attraction, but like everything else it comes and goes. Enjoy the journey, but don’t get caught up in the fleeting blips on the radar screen. In the end you’re only left with yourself. It just flat out doesn’t matter what experience you have or haven’t had. None of that defines you or your worthiness or level of advancement. It’s so easy for that shiny fun stuff to become a distraction and a detour which is how most people will experience it, especially at first when it’s all new and unfamiliar, yet the essence of the path is always YOU. Life will consistently show you that YOU are the point. Being yourself. That’s what it’s all about. Really. All these worldly and otherworldly things are simply more ways for you to experience yourself. They themselves are not the point. The sights along the path are all ultimately pointers that bring you back to you who appears to be walking the path. You ARE the path. You ARE the destination you seek. It’s where the real treasure lies. Within. It’s what virtually every master has said. This can’t be overemphasized.

All the flashy stuff is cool but frankly not at all necessary or relevant. Much of it will arise and blossom quite naturally the more you turn within, yes, but that inward focus is still key. There seems to be a healthy balance necessary between the discipline of abiding within and the freedom that comes with allowing all the outward manifestations to be. By placing these things in their proper context of recognizing that the comings and goings of various phenomena and experience are no more valuable or desirable than simple and ordinary being, we can acknowledge it and let it do what it will without overlaying any false sense of importance on seeking any particular experience, once again turning within as we consciously rest and live as what we are in this world. In fact, simply acknowledging them and sharing your experiences with others help us realize that we’re not going crazy. The sharings can help us in letting go of the fears, resistances, and places we get stuck. In this the sharings have lots of value.

There really is something to be said for being. For this pure silent everpresent BEING. It’s not a manifestation of the world, but almost prior to it, inseparably interwoven with it. It is so easily overlooked and forgotten, and it seems that disconnection of sorts is what gives rise to the experience of what is called a seeker. The reunion with being AS being (becoming one with God or whatever you wanna call it) is what all the experiences are really striving for but never quite succeed at, for they are seeking to accomplish something they never can. The disconnect never really happened. What we seek is always within, never lost, and already present. It’s been said thousands of times and will likely be said a thousand more.